Picnic

Today Jody and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go for a picnic.  Sure it's a little corny, but it was a lot of fun.  We ate  at the Comanche Lookout trails, which is a really neat park near our house that has a lot of different walking trails.  The only downfall was that I bought some really craptastic sandwich rolls that were hard as a rock.  I decided that next time I'll just fry some chicken for us to take!

Jody takes a bite out of his sandwich.  As you can see, this took quite a bit of effort due to the rock solid bread.

Us in front of the tree we ate by.  We should model for post cards ;)

Me after dissecting the remainder of my sandwich.  By this point, I couldn't take any more of the bread, so I decided to pick it apart!

25 Weeks

Well, we've made it to 25 weeks, only 15 to go, woo-hoo!!!!!  Not much to report at this time other than I'm obviously in dire need of a tan......

It's Still a Girl, Whew!

Well, we went back to the doctor today for another sonogram, and as you can see from the top picture, it's still a girl!  Yay!  In the second picture, you are looking right at her face (think man in the moon and you can make out her features, eye, nose, mouth).  Taylor is measuring right on time at a pound and a half, and the doctor said that she is looking healthy and great!  The only downside is that my placenta is still sitting low.  Dr. Ruiz is still hopeful that it's going to move up and out of the way of my cervix, but just to be sure we're doing another sonogram in four weeks.  

Aside from the doctor's visit we are doing fine, I only have 5 weeks of school left (hallelujah!).  Jody has been pretty busy with work, so we have been trying to enjoy what little bit of time we get to have together these days.   Jody has also been hard at work on his annual patio "garden."  This year he planted some flowers, tomatoes and jalapenos.  Taylor is getting big enough that you can feel her shoulders/elbows from the outside when she starts doing somersaults, and she has also decided that her favorite new pass time is to push up against my ribs as hard as she can and stretch.  Fun times.  But that is all that is going on in our neck of the woods, hope everyone is happy and healthy!

Karate Kid

So I know that probably everyone who has ever been pregnant has experienced this, but I still think it's cute.  The other night after dinner Jody and I were talking about how the baby is growing, etc.  I mentioned that I had read online that supposedly you can hear the baby's heartbeat now if you put your ear down to my belly (yeah right, if you're Batman......).  So as we were trying this in the name of science, Taylor delivered a pretty nice little crane kick to poor Jody's ear!  For some reason she absolutely does NOT like anything being on my belly and will start kicking like crazy whenever anything is put on it (seatbelts, snug elastic waistbands, hands, it doesn't really matter!).  Fortunately Jody thought it was pretty funny, and I think it's all finally hitting home for him that he's going to be a dad in 4 months, yikes!  But we go back to the doctor on Wednesday, so be looking for another update, hopefully with more pictures!

Weekend In Fredericksburg

Well, this past weekend we went to Fredericksburg to relax and have sort of a preemptive honeymoon (we're still planning a longer vacation for later, but that will probably have to wait until next summer). We stayed at a really nice bed and breakfast, and spent our days exploring the town and all of its offerings. If you haven't visited Fredericksburg, I highly recommend it. The dining is fantastic (obviously, I came home and discovered I gained 5 lbs. this weekend) plus there are lots of local wineries and breweries to discover. And to boot, it's just a really beautiful little community. With all of the wine and beer offerings, I was a little disappointed that I couldn't enjoy them all, but Jody has promised that we'll go back again after the baby's born and do it up proper. At the very least, Jody did have a very responsible designated driver!



Jody enjoys a nice hefeweisen at the Auslander



Enjoying lunch at the Rathskeller, this restaurant is in the basement of the old hospital. A little creepy, but the food was awesome!



The shiny beer tanks at the Fredericksburg Brewing Co. If you need a growler, this is the place to get it.



Jody and me at Luckenbach, somehow the camera got switched to black and white for this picture. We weren't just being artsy fartsy.



The Doug Moreland Show, always a great performance. This night they were opening for Mickey and The Motorcars, another great local band.

Nursery & a Name (FINALLY!)

Well, we have been diligently working on the nursery for a couple of months now and we're almost through!  I thought I had posted some pictures of our progress a while back, but it just goes to show how brain dead pregnancy makes you because obviously I didn't actually do it!  So here is what we have so far, eventually I'm going to get a different quilt for the spare bed that matches our bedding a little better, plus I'm still working on some of the wall decorations.  

Also, we FINALLY have landed on a name.  We decided this weekend that we're going to name our little girl Taylor Nicole.  Kinda has a nice ring to it huh?

23 Weeks

Well, I've almost hit the 6 month mark, woo-hoo!  Everything's still going rather smoothly, we can feel our little Rockette kicking away more than ever now.  I have still been swelling (going low-sodium is hard!  Even a mild slip up turns me into a tick) and have also begun having super-fun heartburn from hell.  

School is going well, I just took the second of my three terminal comp tests last week.  Just one more to go and I can breathe a little easier, at least until it's time to take the national registry!  I've also begun applying for a few jobs here in town, so everyone keep your fingers crossed because I'm sick of being unemployed.  

More exciting news, Jody and I are taking our honeymoon this weekend in Fredericksburg.  We are so excited to have a little bit of a vacation, plus the Hill Country is one of our favorite places to visit.  So, look for pictures from our trip after we get back.  

Corporal Cuddling

For a small break in the monotony, here's a fun picture of Jody trying to force Alice to be sweet.  Tonight he decided that she looked vulnerable so he swept in for the kill.  It's a maneuver we call corporal cuddling.  We force Alice to be sweet and loving whether she likes it or not.  Tonight she was especially pissed about it, I think because Jody was sort of flattening her a little bit......

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

Well after a grueling 2 hours with ultrasound students, we finally found out that it's a girl.  Only one of the six students was able to get her to show off for us (and she was ninja fast, I think that's the only reason we got the shot), but I don't care, at least we finally know.  I'm not adding the picture of the "girl parts" only because when it printed it was so light that you really can't see what it's pointing to.  So, we have a very active little girl (she kept kicking and turning around the whole time), who is very healthy and growing like a weed!  Jody was a little disappointed that he's not having a boy this go round, but I told him maybe next time!  Plus I'm sure she'll have him wrapped around her little finger as soon as he holds her.  We still haven't picked a name, for the last couple of weeks Jody started calling her "Biscuit," but I don't know if that's a wise choice for the birth certificate!  But I promise, we're going to start working on that project next.  We go back to the doctor in three weeks to check on my placenta to see if its moved up since it was a little low the last time.  I'm sure I'll have even more pictures then.  

Here she is sucking her thumb....

And here's her face!